It's an old and somewhat antique topic.
In modern times, English has dominated the world's first language. A fluent English can really affect or even change a person's fate. Therefore, it is no wonder that for hundreds of years, people who have cried for English and laughed for English are crazy for English and stand in a row hand in hand, and it is estimated that they can form a wall of people up to several light years.
I started studying ABC in China at the age of 9, enrolled at Yale on a full scholarship at the age of 18, and have worked in English every day for the past three years, so I have been dealing with english for fifteen or sixteen years. For how to learn English well, I can't tell the systematic long theory, I would like to borrow this small article to share some of my experiences in dealing with English.
Words are the most basic element of English and the source of headaches for many people. From Apple at the beginning of learning English, "baby teeth" words such as dog, to the university level four or six thesaurus, to to the toefl IELTS thousands of words, gre and sat of nearly 10,000 words, "vocabulary" is always with you.
In order to understand the long story, in order to write a masterpiece in English, the words must be memorized, and they must be memorized solidly, and there is no room for compromise.
I've seen different versions of "Happy Memorizing Words", which simply describes the memorization of words as simple and beautiful as a slide over the house. But I think this is unrealistic. If you want to memorize words well, there are no shortcuts. Unless you want to fool yourself, unless you just want to "get acquainted" with the words without trying to understand, you still have to grit your teeth and make yourself bitter.
How to memorize words? I have the following humble opinion:
Memorizing words is not to isolate the "words" and overcome them one by one, but a process of three-dimensional learning and memory of words in sentences and paragraphs.
Some friends said I was going to memorize the words, and then took out the word list, which had only words and corresponding Chinese meanings, and several large pages were airtight. Then start writing down the first word from the top left corner to the last word in the lower right corner. A few hours later, dizzy and screaming into the sky: I'm done, oh yes!
As a result, when I came back from playing, I picked up the word list and was dumbfounded to find that many words were familiar, but I couldn't remember what it meant. Worse still, even if you remember the Chinese meaning of a word, you basically don't know how to make a sentence.
This kind of isolated lexical recitation is no different from seedling promotion.
In fact, words and sentences complement each other. Words that are detached from sentences and paragraphs are like fish that have left the water. So, I think the most effective (and only) notation is:
1. Put new words into sentences to understand and memorize;
2. Simultaneously memorize other forms of a new word (noun/verb/adjective/adverb, etc.)
For example, remember the word "fantasy" (noun: "fantasy; imagination; fantasy thing"), after knowing the meaning of the Chinese and the pronunciation of the word, my next two steps are:
1. Look at the example sentences to deepen your impression:
the high school students always live in a world of fantasy. (High school students always live in fantasy.) ）
i sometimes can’t distinguish between fantasy and reality. (I sometimes can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality.) ）
2. Other forms of word memory:
Verb: fantasize (fantasy; imagine; or "yy" in buzzwords)
i want her to fantasize about me. (I want her to fantasize about me.) ）
Adjective: fantastic (superb, incredible, fantastical)
we are going to watch a fantastic movie tonight. (We're going to see a great movie tonight.) ）
This method, at first glance, is much more troublesome than the simple and rough way of memorizing only Chinese meaning, but in fact, it is a process of learning and absorbing multiple expressions (fixed collocations/sentence patterns) with new words as the central clue. In time, it will not only broaden the vocabulary, but also deepen the multi-dimensional deepening of English usage. This is beneficial and harmless to learning English for a long time.
All in all, memorizing words should not be too utilitarian, do not think of taking shortcuts easily, but should concentrate on taking the first step of learning English.
In addition to that, friends can try some tips for memorizing words. For example, you can put the audio back on before going to bed to review the words you have memorized during the day. My hands-on experience proves that stimulating the memory area of the brain from both an auditory and visual perspective, coupled with a good night's sleep, can significantly deepen the impression of words and their usage.
Many students regard having an authentic pronunciation as the top priority of learning English. Some friends believe that how many words can be and how difficult sentences can be pulled out are not the most important, but it is king to be able to say the rap of the beautiful voice or the thick and heavy frustration of the English tone.
"How cool it is to be able to speak a Californian or a London accent!"
I've been an admirer of accents since the first day I learned English, and I was particularly fascinated by the beautiful English that flowed from the mouths of Hollywood stars, as beautiful as piano music.
It's true that you want to pronounce yourself authentically, but I think there's something wrong with the notion that "learning English = imitating and learning to accent."
If the authentic pronunciation is compared to a woman's cosmetics and clothes, then the basic English skills composed of grammar, vocabulary, sentences and passages should be a woman's "plain face". Without a beautiful plain face, even the most stunning makeup is difficult to turn Dong Shi into Xi Shi.
I once met a domestic college girl at an international friend reception. The girl's appearance is outstanding and tall, confident and generous to introduce herself in a beautiful language that goes around the bend, and she slightly surprised a few of us Chinese and foreign boys who chatted together. An American boy asked where her American pronunciation came from, and the girl said that she had never been to the United States and was not an English major, but she felt that learning English was easy, just listen to katy perry and taylor swift songs and imitate them.
At first I secretly admired the girl's language Huigen. But as soon as everyone talked, her spoken language was frequent. First of all, the grammar is chaotic, there is basically no distinction between the name and the tense, and then the use of words is weird, and I can probably guess what the girl wants to express as a Chinese, but a few American buddies can only be embarrassed and confused. What worries her the most is that even if the girl is stuck or wrong in the wording, she still thinks about the "bend" of the beautiful voice.
“more and more happy”... ("Getting happier, that's a misnomer.) The correct way to say it would be happyier and happier) When the girl says "more", she is eager to wrap her tongue around a right angle.
"Authentic" English, first of all, should be worded authentically, not pronounced authentically. "What to say" is far more important than "pronounce it well".
I made several Singaporean and Indian friends while studying and working in the United States. The most unique and self-contained place in the world where English accents are, I think, is none other than these two countries.
“hey leo, do you have dime (time)? i nee do dog do you. (i need to talk to you.)” (leo do you have time?) I need to talk to you for a few words. My Indian friends always spoke cordially to me in a strong South Asian spoken language.
Even if the accents of Indians and Singaporeans sound a bit "soul-destroying" to the Chinese, they use accurate words and express them clearly and fluently. When communicating with people from traditional English-speaking countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, they rarely have communication problems. And the Americans and The British did not casually dislike these slightly "weird" accents.
So I would say that accents really don't matter that much, don't be a slave to accents. Dialectically, no accent is right or wrong, in fact, American, British and Australian are also a kind of "regional accent", some people like and some people hate, just like Beijing dialect, Shanghai dialect, Sichuan dialect.
Therefore, first of all, we should consolidate the basic skills of English, and get the vocabulary grammar listening and listening well, so as to have the capital to soar spoken pronunciation. It's good to learn pure American or English sounds, but that's just the icing on the cake. Even if the imitation talent is insufficient, it will never be able to get rid of the Chinese pronunciation, and it is not a big deal. The content of the speech is good, and the writing is authentic, which is the only indicator for learning English well.
This may be a bit of a cliché, after all, the "anti-dumb English" movement has been in full swing in China for many years. But after returning to China, I still found that many friends were ashamed to open their mouths or did not want to open their mouths at all, and the problem of "dumb English" was still not light.
The reason is still worried that I can't say it well.
"I didn't learn English for long, I was stumbling, I was embarrassed..."
"I'm a terrible pronunciation, and I'll be despised by others."
"I said I wasn't skilled, I always made mistakes, or don't be upset."
Are these concerns really necessary?
In the last paragraph I said that "accent" really isn't as important as many people think. What's wrong with Chinese pronunciation? At least we can beat the Japanese who panic as soon as they speak English!
Many times the concerns and shackles are added to ourselves. Don't be shy, don't worry about other people's jokes. Besides, in all these years of dealing with foreigners, I have not met any English speaker who blatantly ridicules a person because of his poor English pronunciation.
Take a hundred steps back, even if you have a problem when speaking English, it doesn't matter. Others laugh for a few seconds at most, and no one will go to their hearts at all.
Let's make another analogy. Let's say I'm a thin bean sprout now and want to lift dumbbells to practice some muscle mass. When I first stepped into the gym, I was probably blown away by the variety of muscular men inside. What a strong and toned that!
I want to be one of them one day, so I have to get rid of my inferiority complex, stride forward, pick up the lightest pair of dumbbells in the corner in a group of iron-lifting strongmen, and start the first step of the fitness long march.
I followed the plan strictly, practicing four times a week and gradually increasing the amount. Coupled with a scientific diet and plenty of rest, within half a year, my body shape will definitely undergo a leapfrog and gratifying change.
The same goes for practicing spoken English. The key is to get out of your comfort zone, get rid of the mental burden, talk more, say more, say more.
At first, I couldn't connect words into sentences, so I followed the audio and movie parrots. In short, you have to let the vocal cords run first.
Some improvement, I found a speaking partner to practice often. When I first started junior high school, I had a poor spoken language, but I was determined to "talk and talk" in English within a year, so whenever I had time, I stuck to foreign teachers from the United States and Canada and talked with them one after another. At that time, I must have made a lot of thunderous mistakes, but I still cheekily continued to "talk and laugh". Until one day a few months later, the foreign teacher uncle suddenly looked at me "affectionately" and said, leo, I found that your English expression ability has improved a lot!
While actively speaking, we must pay attention to strengthening the basic skills of English, just like when practicing muscles, you can't patronize and lift dumbbells, but also to ensure the supply of nutrition. It is not enough to learn the texts in the English textbook, I suggest that you can subscribe to an English magazine that suits your level, or download a mobile app for Reading American texts, and use the fragmented time of commuting and lunch break to learn a little every day. When harder words, sentences, and grammar can be mastered, the English spoken will also become more "advanced."
In general, the process of learning English is sometimes really uncomfortable. If you want to learn English well, you really have to work hard. It's like being dizzy and hypoxic when climbing a mountain, having trouble breathing when running a marathon, and moaning with exhaustion when lifting dumbbells.
But a few years later, when you write English articles like clouds and water, when you speak spoken language comparable to the old beauty, when your life and work are inseparable from English, you will definitely sigh, the pain of memorizing words, the pain of practicing speaking, the pain of learning grammar, are worth it!
